Dior announces event in Lecce for July 22nd
Dior today announces the most awaited event of the summer: the Cruise 2021 show will take place in Lecce in Piazza Duomo on July 22nd for a select and select audience, as the rules impose to contain the coronavirus infection. This was announced by the Creative Director of the brand Maria Grazia Chiuri together with Pietro Beccari President and CEO of the Parisian fashion house in a global video conference held a few hours ago. The first question is: why Lecce and Puglia?
The main reason for this choice is the memory that links Maria Grazia to Southern Italy and Puglia, the region where her father was born, where she herself spent part of her childhood and to whom she remained very close. The region is also known for the many artisan and creative workers at all levels, from fashion to music, from sculpture to the art of ceramics to the design of the illuminations. A real "project" of solidarity, assonances, exceptional elective affinities. The Cruise collection created by Maria Grazia Chiuri is in fact like an a cappella song: the sculptor Pietro Ruffo has imagined a new look for the Miss Dior perfume with more rustic floral decorations, the collaboration with the Le C Ostantine association , which includes a network of craftsmen, has made it possible to work with the tombolo processing techniques, the Fondazione Musica per la Taranta to integrate the sounds of the famous Apulian dance, the light designer Marinella Senator with his baroque illuminations for the set up. The concept also complements the presence of a line of ceramics from the Branca di Tricase company (the village where Maria Grazia's father was born), who created a tarot-themed collection for the occasion. Tarot cards that are part of the popular tradition, a journey between the sacred and the profane and not least a fascination towards the dark that Christian Dior himself has always had. Monsieur Dior founded the maison after the war, in 1947 with the advent of the New Look and it was in those dark and uncertain years that he sought the tarot for the necessary comfort to keep going and put questions to the cards on the return of his missing sister Catherine. Catherine Dior, the sister of the famous designer, was in fact one of the protagonists of the French resistance during the Second World War.
Ultimately, the new collection represents a warm welcome in the most intimate and emotional universe of Maria Grazia Chiuri, enriched with an aspirational tension that always refers to the history of Monsieur Dior and focuses entirely on the value of traditions, from tailoring to the artistic. Because fashion is much more than a series of looks, says Maria Grazia, fashion is culture.
At the end of the conference, the questions that arrived live asked for news on the relationship between Dior and China. And Maria Grazia Chiuri has confirmed that Dior is ready to "pack" for China, where she plans to bring her Designer of Dreams retrospective to Shanghai. The exhibition will open on 28 July at the Long Museum West Bund in the metropolis and will be open until 4 October. An inauguration event is scheduled for July 24th. After the debut at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2017 and the stop at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the retrospective dedicated to the history of the maison is proposed again in China with a new scenographic narrative and with many special items and will be open to the public by July 28 at the Long Museum West Bund. While the launch of the Couture Collection is scheduled for 6 July, with methods still to be communicated.
Finally, the desire to follow the fashion week calendar is confirmed, to continue to create a sense of community, with attention to inclusiveness and craftsmanship. "We rise by lifting others" or "We can only go back by helping others to do it" one of the phrases of Marinella Senatore's illuminations, is what encompasses the Maison's thought: supporting all its collaborators, ateliers and what is considered Dior family. United to believe in a better future.
Images: PR
